Duh! Can't see the forest for the trees!

I've been working on a second wool painting. Because I'm a glutton for punishment, I decided that since the first hard and shiny subject worked so well, I should do another hard and shiny subject. And I chose hard and shiny . . . and iridescent . . . and transparent carnival glass. What was I thinking?

The hard and shiny and iridescent and transparent parts are not the biggest problems, though. Carnival glass is also cut glass with lots of facets. And wool roving doesn't really want to do fine detail. But that still isn't the biggest problem. That took someone else to pinpoint, someone who was not invested in the piece. An objective observer. Tony Henson

After I explained my process and griped and winged a little, he said, "So it's sort of like me trying to make a realistic drawing of you on a regular sheet of paper with an inch-wide hunk of charcoal."

Well, yes, it is very much like that. The problem is not any of the difficult things I am tackling, but rather the scale at which I'm tackling them.

Thank you, Tony!

So yesterday I pulled the carnival glass off my foam and set up a still life to work on at a large scale.

I'll be doing this on a lovely dark green and blue wool backing I dyed. And once I've been successful in this medium again perhaps I'll retackle the carnival glass. On a much larger scale. Duh!